my college is starting to require tablet PCs for incoming freshmen engineers

[Looney]

Originally posted by: angryswede

Originally posted by: stash

I've heard several bad things about WinXP Tablet PC edition and such

Such as?

it being slow, and having poor handwrite recognition which is a pretty key feature in any tablet pc

I'm not sure where you're hearing this from, but they're wrong. The performance is equal to any other version of XP, and the handwriting recognition is fantastic... it can read mine with 90%+ difficulty, and my handwriting is horrendous (seriously).

 

[pkme2]

Since my memory isn't what it used to be, the practical use of these handhelds are great for notetaking. If one can remember everything that's said or written in class, with all its distractions, you got a photographic memory. If you can afford to go to VT, you can afford a handheld. But since many don't, well do it your way. The American way is always trying to bring a philosophical slant on everything. This thread is no exception.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: pkme2
Since my memory isn't what it used to be, the practical use of these handhelds are great for notetaking. If one can remember everything that's said or written in class, with all its distractions, you got a photographic memory. If you can afford to go to VT, you can afford a handheld. But since many don't, well do it your way. The American way is always trying to bring a philosophical slant on everything. This thread is no exception.

I realy realy sincerly beleive people were taking notes LONG before the advent of a handheld computer. Call me silly, but I seem to remember taking lots and lots of notes in places were there was not a single electronic device in the room!! I know this is hard to comprehend in this modern digital age.

Also the vast majority of people can type a hell of a lot faster then they can write. And I can write a hell of a lot faster on paper then I can on a tablet.

Personally what I would do at school was to find the nearest computer and ssh into my computer at home. Then I would take notes and save them directly to my harddrive.

The only major advantage a tablet PC has over anything else is the ability to quickly scetch out diagrams directly into a computer without having the scan them in later. In classes were your dealing with a lot of mathmatical notation or technical drawings this can be very usefull. But even then if you want to make something usefull your still probably have to go back in later and re-do it to make it more legable.

I still don't see how this qualifies a tablet PC as a requirement for a engineering degree though. Just give me some good reasons why on earth this makes sense to require students to buy a expensive device, weither they want one or not.

edit:

Like for instance:
"VT is planing on moving to completely electronic books. That way they can save the students a lot of money and time by not requiring them to buy books that they probably will barely ever use. So it's nessicary for students to have a mobile device in order to study the required reading material and follow along in class".

See that's a GOOD reason. A reason WHY you would want to require to have these tablets.

But I also expect that VT expects students to have a crapload of books they have to buy on top of buying a near-worthless tablet PC.

 

[A5]

Originally posted by: smack Down

Originally posted by: Addikt

Originally posted by: Umbergerthat would be fine, if they classes and professors took advantage of the tools they have, but they do not. we learn an autodesk CAD program as part of our engineering "fundamentals" classes, but other than that, there is almost nothing that you can't do at home on your desktop. waste of money.

I see your point, a lot of the engineers I know DO in fact take advantage of the technology.

Originally posted by: smack DownI don't want to pay for some clueless professor to teach me how to use word. There is nothing that should be taught in class that needs a laptop, tablet PC, or a regular PC.

Actually a lot can be taught in class that you can use a laptop for. I know that friends in engineering are able to create and analyze scientific models. Even for me in business I have used my laptop for creating statistical and financial models. I have taken electives in computer engineering and networking and a computing device were crucial to those areas. So it very much depends on where you are, what program you are in, and how well the program has been developed to use the computer as a tool. Obviously any instituion can make it mandatory for you to use a tablet, the level of benefit will then have to be gauged in respect to how courses have been designed to use them.

I do see your point though. Mandatory commitments are oftentimes not the ideal, and tablet computers are still rather expensive so it is a rather large mandatory expense to students who can barely afford to feed themselves.

Again I don't need to be in class to have a professor badysit me while I create a model. That should be done outside of class. If there is an important model that a professor wants to show they can use a project and their laptop.

Yeah...I can see that you CAN do that stuff on a laptop, but it's certainly not necessary to do that stuff in class on a regular basis.

 

[Fox5]

My primary use for a tablet is to do homework for other classes in class, or to get through boring classes.
It can kind of look like you're taking notes, when you're really chatting online or browsing the web.

 

[stash]

I realy realy sincerly beleive people were taking notes LONG before the advent of a handheld computer. Call me silly, but I seem to remember taking lots and lots of notes in places were there was not a single electronic device in the room!! I know this is hard to comprehend in this modern digital age.

lol.

I gotta agree with drag here. I think computers in class (at least lectures) are really stupid. I know that if I had had wireless and and a laptop when I was in school, I would've gotten absolutely nothing done. My GF is in law school now, and she sees people with laptops in class all the time. She says they are always doing one of the following things: instant messaging, playing online poker, or surfing the web (usually craigslist or eBay).

Somehow, society has managed to produce thousands and thousands of engineers without the use of computers in the classroom. I think we can manage without.

 

[tRaptor]

Tablets are bad news. I'm sitting on mine right now in class. Notice how I'm on AT and not paying attention.

 

[RedCOMET]

I'm a computer Engineeinger Student who will be a senor next fall. While some of my friends(5-6) have laptops for classes, a large majority of them do not. SOme of them do use them for notes, or for doing programming assignments but most don't.

I personally would like a laptop just so i could do programming assingnments while i'm on campus( i live off campus). For my Design classes and such, people use their laptops to bring up the professors website while haveing the CAD software open on the desktop lab pc.

I personally feel that most people, and engineers can do with out the laptop for most of their classes. I've gotten through many a classes fine without one and so has most of my fellow classesmates.

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: stash

I realy realy sincerly beleive people were taking notes LONG before the advent of a handheld computer. Call me silly, but I seem to remember taking lots and lots of notes in places were there was not a single electronic device in the room!! I know this is hard to comprehend in this modern digital age.

lol.

I gotta agree with drag here. I think computers in class (at least lectures) are really stupid. I know that if I had had wireless and and a laptop when I was in school, I would've gotten absolutely nothing done. My GF is in law school now, and she sees people with laptops in class all the time. She says they are always doing one of the following things: instant messaging, playing online poker, or surfing the web (usually craigslist or eBay).

Somehow, society has managed to produce thousands and thousands of engineers without the use of computers in the classroom. I think we can manage without.

that's laywers for you tho.

society is changing and evolving, and computers are becoming a big part of that. i'm not an engineering student but if you haven't noticed that the world is becoming more computerized then i dunno what to tell you. when i was taking drafting classes in high school 14 years ago the computer was just starting to be used (at least at that level). most of our stuff was done by hand but the little taste of doing it on the computer was neat. i can't even imagine how far that has progressed. so it's easy to say that in the past we churned out engineers without computers but times are changing, and things are not what they were 10 or even 5 years ago. i believe the T in VT is tech right? technology? so why would people be surprised when they start introducing new tech into their teaching?

i can't imagine they would require it just for kicks. as screwed up as the educational system can be that just doesn't make sense, especially considering not everyone has tons of cash.

 

[erikistired]

hehe. i just read an article on it, there's someone saying that this is because there are a lot of people using powerbooks and someone is hoping to wipe out all the apples or something. nonsense.

Bauman was part of a 2005 committee that tested Macintosh computers for their applicability to the engineering field. Walker said this alignment is the real cause for the protest.

"You have to read the hidden agenda. The fact is that a lot of the people are Apple fans -- they'd like to see us have a Mac PowerBook," Walker said. "By us going to a tablet requirement, it wipes out all hope for Apples ... in the next year, anyway. I've received a lot of angry e-mail from students, but most of them are from the Mac Users group."

 

[stash]

I'm not an engineering student but if you haven't noticed that the world is becoming more computerized then i dunno what to tell you.

Nah, I hadn't noticed

i can't imagine they would require it just for kicks

Yeah, I doubt it's just for kicks. But if you think it won't be used for other purposes that detract from well, getting an education, I dunno what to tell you

 

[Smilin]

Tablet PC plus MS Office OneNote = teh bomz!!!!!